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If you’re shopping for gifts for your family, and need ideas for what to get to your smart and connected grandkids, we have a few great suggestions for them to inspire their imagination.

Snap Circuits

Snap Circuits are a cool way for kids to learn about circuits and how they work. There are over 100 different projects in this kit. Everything from learning series vs parallel, to controlling sounds or circuits controlled by sound or light. The instructions show many different projects, it’s safe and uses two AA batteries. It is truly, as the packaging says, good for kids 8-108. Available at some retailers and on Amazon.com.

Amazon Fire Kids TabletThe AmazonFire Kids Edition with a 7″ display a blue or pink kid-proof case, it’s a full-featured tablet with Amazon Freetime, which allows parental controls on content and daily use time, with unlimited access to 10,000 kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps and more for free for one year. And it offers a 2-year worry-free guarantee. If it gets broken, return it for a free replacement, no questions asked. I bought one of these for my daughter last year, and it is everything you’d want it to be. It comes with 8GB of storage, a lot of which is taken up by the OS. This year’s version has a MicroSD card slot, so we highly recommend getting at least a 16GB microSD card to help add to the storage. It’s only $84.99 for the tablet, microSD cards come in a variety of capacities. We like Sandisk Ultra cards for this.VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch DX

Wearable tech is all the rage this year. From the Apple Watch to all the great Android choices, these are a hot item. And for kids around 4-9, there’s a smart watch made just for them, by Vtech, the company that makes the Leapfrog Explorer, etc. It can take photos, shoot video, play motion-based sounds (e.g. flapping your arms makes a bird sound, stomping around makes an elephant sound), has a voice-changing recorder, built-in calendar and calculator, and more! Parents or grandparents can connect the watch to a computer and download new features as they are offered, as well. Available on Amazon.com.

Kinbar®Two Wheel Self Balancing Electric Scooter

Self-balancing scooters are HUGE right now. If your grandkids don’t have one, they want one. Easily ridden and controlled, it’s the fastest way to get around the neighborhood. These things are everywhere now. It’s the promise of the Segway Human Transporter, but at a fraction of the price. As low as $399 compared to $6500. Rechargeable and cool-looking, we’ve seen kids and adults alike rolling effortlessly around town on these things. Available on Amazon.com.

Sphero BB-8 App-Enabled Droid

The new Star Wars movie is just about to be released, so of course Star Wars toys are hot. This is one movie that appeals to generations of fans. And this droid is about the coolest thing ever. WE want one. Or two. Or three! It sits in the recharging base, but when you take it off, it’s fully controlled through an app. And you can even command it by voice!

To fully understand the cool factor here, watch the video the maker created: